The United Methodist Church recently honored Joanne Owens with the Excellence in Education Award as an outstanding Christian Educator in her district. That was a high point in her Sunday school teaching career, which began when she was in the kindergarten department, and she decided to teach the toddlers a thing or two.

Joanne received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Bible and Christian Education from Rhodes College (formerly Southwestern at Memphis), where she was considered somewhat strange because she taught Sunday school while all normal college kids slept in on Sunday mornings.

As Director of Christian Education at the First Presbyterian Church in Dalton, Georgia and the Whitehaven Presbyterian Church in Memphis, she taught Sunday school teachers how to teach, and she learned that the church’s crème de la crème was found in the Sunday school.

When she became a Methodist by marriage, Joanne jumped right into the thick of things. Through the years she has served as a Sunday school teacher in every department, youth counselor, choir member and chairman of a number of committees, including the Commission on Education and the Commission on Worship. She has held many offices in United Methodist Women, including president and district secretary.

Joanne now teaches an adult Sunday school class in Calhoun, Georgia, where she lives with her husband and three children on a dairy farm. When she is not studying her Sunday school lesson, she writes for a number of farm and religious publications.

When asked to comment on her busy schedule as a freelance writer and church leader, Joanne said, “The interests that I pursue provide challenge, creative outlets, inspiration and continuing education for me, and besides, they all beat the heck our of milking cows.”